Continental to build tire plant in S. Carolina

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Oct 6 (Reuters) - Germany’s Continental AG (CONG.DE) plans to build a plant in South Carolina capable of making 5 million tires a year by 2017 and 8 million tires by 2021, its Americas arm said on Thursday.

To meet growing tire retail and automotive demand, the plant will be built in Sumter County, South Carolina, Continental Tire the Americas LLC said.

Continental plans to invest $500 million and create 1,600 jobs at the Sumter plant. The jobs will be filled by 2020, the company said.

“In 2011 alone, we have announced manufacturing investments of nearly $1 billion which are dedicated to increasing our production capacity in the Americas region,” said Jochen Etzel, chief executive of Continental Tire the Americas, in a statement.

Earlier this year, Continental announced plans to invest $224 million to substantially boost output and add 444 jobs at its Mount Vernon, Illinois, tire plant, which will increase capacity at that plant to 4 million tires annually.

Also, the company, which markets tires under the Continental and General brands, said it would invest $220 million to expand production capacity at its plant in Brazil. (Reporting by Bernie Woodall, editing by Matthew Lewis)